Category Archives: News – Houston Local

Progress in the aftermath of Ike

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champagneWednesday was a good day. Large areas of Houston — including the area that includes my family’s home — had power restored. Our land phone lines were also restored on Wednesday after they had survived Hurricane Ike only to be knocked out during the severe thunderstorms that swept through Houston the night after the hurricane hammered the area. So, we’re celebrating a bit tonight.

There are still large parts of Houston that have not had power restored, but my sense is that most areas other than the devastated coastal communities will have power restored by the end of the weekend. That will go a long ways toward getting life back to a semblance of normalcy in this neck of the woods.

Which leads to a point about the difference between hurricanes in Houston, on one hand, and areas such as New Orleans and Galveston, on the other. Most of Houston is at least 50 miles inland from the coast, so except for the southeast side of Houston that is close to Galveston Bay, the main risk of damage from hurricanes for most of Houston is from the wind.

In contrast, communities such as New Orleans and Galveston have to deal not only with damage from hurricane winds, but the even more devastating effects of flooding from the hurricane’s storm surge.

Believe me, it’s not pleasant living without power for the better part of a week. But my family and I had a livable home, natural gas for cooking, cell phones for communication, plenty of food and water, and autos for mobility and powering laptops and other equipment. I was able to work with little disruption between my home office and my "car office" whenever I needed Web access (because of spotty cell network coverage, I couldn’t get Web access on my laptop air card from my home office — I had to travel to a nearby part of town where the cell network signal was strong).

In the big scheme of things, that’s not much inconvenience. And it’s nothing compared to what many residents of the Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast are still facing after Hurricane Katrina or what residents of Galveston and the other Houston coastal communities are facing for the foreseeable future.

A day in a life after Ike

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the road warrior Just jotting down a few observations throughout the day of living in an area that just experienced a major natural disaster.

FEMA, take note

Although The Woodlands did not suffer as much damage as many other parts of the Houston metropolitan area, it’s interesting in my travels around town over the past several days that I have seen no evidence whatsoever of any federal relief.

For example, it seems to me that there are a couple of basic things that the federal government could do to facilitate recovery efforts. First, move as many portable generators to selected service stations throughout the region so that citizens can become somewhat mobile again. The primary problem at this point is not lack of gasoline. Rather, it’s lack of power to operate the pumps to get the available gas into cars.

Even though large swaths of Houston remain without power, many areas are getting power back by the hour. Folks in areas without power can be much more productive if they can travel to areas that have it and work. Unfortunately, as it stands, there is no gas to get to those areas and then return home.

Another irritation is that no one in an official capacity attempts to do anything to facilitate communications for the citizens directly affected by a natural disaster such as Ike. Ever since the storm, cell phone usage has been spotty in most residential areas, and serviceable in only a few commercial areas. Perhaps damage to the cell network equipment is the cause of the poor service, but I haven’t heard anyone contend that such is the case.

Galveston

Just as the deadly hurricane of 1900 changed the nature of Galveston, my sense is that Hurricane Ike has done the same thing in 2008.

Prior to the 1900 hurricane, Galveston was Texas’ largest city, port and commercial center. The devastation from that storm put into the motion the changes in Texas’ development that resulted in Houston becoming the major port and cities such as Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth becoming the major commercial centers. As Houston grew into this region’s major center of commerce, Galveston evolved into a tourist center and a weekend beach getaway for folks in Houston.

Despite that tourism development, the City of Galveston has been slowly dying for years. Jobs and commercial activity largely revolve around the tourism industry (even the port is now owned by the Port of Houston Authority). Most young people now move away from the city after high school, so older folks constitute an unusually high percentage of the "town folk."

My sense is that Galveston will come back as a weekender community and a modest tourist vista, but that commerce not related to the tourism industry will continue to decline at an accelerated rate. My sense is that what we might see in 20 years is a community comprised of a few high-rise condos and resorts along the seawall, the ubiquitous weekender homes on the West Beach and not much else.

It will certainly be easier to evacuate such a community.

Radio anchor people

As a general rule, I do not listen to much radio. Maybe an occasional traffic report or Charlie Pallilo’s sports talk show in the rare event that I am driving somewhere during it.

But I’ve been shocked at how bad the radio anchor reporters have been on KTRH, the main station providing disaster information to the public. Although a number of the KTRH field reporters are OK, the anchors often sound as if they are blithering idiots. It seems as if they aren’t asking inane and non-challenging questions to "experts" or public officials, they laughing and making bad jokes at inappropriate times or in regard to serious issues.

Walter Cronkite, where are you when we need you?

Houston sports teams

I noted in this earlier post in the run-up to Hurricane Ike that the high number of variables that become involved in reacting to hurricanes often generates some abysmal decisions in reaction to the storm. That observation was certainly validated by a couple of decisions that were made with regard to Houston sports teams.

From University of Houston Athletic Director Dave Maggard’s absurd decision to have the University’s football team play in Dallas while the storm was still hammering Houston (!) to Major League Commissioner Bud Selig’s equally preposterous decision to haul the Houston Astros players and coaches away from their families (to Milwaukee of all places) the day after a terrible natural disaster left the players and coaches’ families without power in a devastated city, it’s hard to imagine the fractured thought process that went into either of those boneheaded decisions.

Sports competition at the major-college and professional level requires a high level of concentration. Given the circumstances under which these games were played, it is not surprising in the least that the Houston teams lost each one of them. How could the players and coaches be concentrating on a damn game?

It’s only God’s grace to both Maggard and Selig that no family member of either a UH or Stros player or coach was hurt or killed in the aftermath of the storm. Why do either of these fellows still have their respective jobs?

The aftermath of Ike

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candlesAn estimated 5 million customers along the upper Texas Gulf Coast lost power as a resuit of Hurricane Ike. Only about 5% of those have been restored as I write this post. Current estimates are that it will be 2-3 weeks before even most of those customers will have their power restored.

To give you an idea of the enormity of this damage, the last hurricane to make a direct hit on the Houston metro area — Hurricane Alicia in 1983 — left 750,000 customers without power.  Two-thirds of those customers had their power restored within five days, and it took between 2-4 weeks to restore the rest.

Although The Woodlands (where my family lives, 30 miles north of downtown Houston) did not suffer catastrophic damage from Ike, the part of the grid from which it receives power did. Entergy, the power company here, estimates that it will be between 2-3 weeks before The Woodlands power is restored. No one in The Woodlands currently has any power (I am writing this from my battery-powered laptop with an air card).

With that backdrop, i was curious to discover this notice from the local public school system:

Conroe Independent School District announced schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday and the Tuesday board meeting is cancelled. Residents are asked to check the Web site or call after 4 p.m. Monday for updates on the rest of the week.

Uh, one question there, school district: how are residents with no power supposed to check a Web site for updates?

Better re-think that approach, folks.

 

Surviving Ike

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Hurricane Ike Yes, although you haven’t heard from me for awhile, I’m still here.

My family and I survived Hurricane Ike just fine. Although not an intense hurricane (it came ashore as a category 2), the enormity of the storm was something to behold. In The Woodlands, which is about 30 miles north of downtown Houston, we were buffeted by hurricane and tropical storm winds and torrential rain for over 12 hours. Such a lengthy period of high winds and heavy rain is extremely unusual for even a strong hurricane.

The damage in The Woodlands is not as bad as most of the rest of the Houston area — mostly just downed trees, some of which damaged houses. However, as many of you outside of the Houston area have seen on television (virtually no one in the Houston area has power, so no television here), the devastation around the Houston area — particularly those areas close to the coast — is devastating. My sense is that at least a quarter million people in the metro area do not have a livable home to return to.

Almost every area of Houston has no power. Cell phone networks are overloaded, so cell phone access via either telephone or computer is spotty, at best. No one has a clue of when power will be restored, but the initial estimates are not particularly encouraging.

Inasmuch as I have quite a few arrangements to make over the next several days for my family members and clients, blogging will probably be light or non-existent until some sense of normalcy returns. I very much appreciate everyone who has emailed and phoned to check in on me today. Please understand if it takes awhile for me to get back to you.

Houstonians reacted remarkably in the face of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. Now, it is time for a re-run of that effort. For all of you around country and the world who check in from time to time on this little corner of the blogosphere, any help and prayer that you can provide will be much appreciated.

The Galveston Seawall

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You probably have heard much over the past couple of days about the Galveston Seawall. It was constructed in the early 20th century after Galveston was destroyed by the storm surge of the Hurricane of 1900. The purpose of the seawall is to protect the east side of Galveston Island from similar storm surges. Here is a picture of the seawall:

galvestonseawall normal

As you can see, the ocean usually laps up on the beach 75 yards or so away from the seawall. On most days, the ocean rarely gets close to the seawall, even during high tide.

The picture below shows the seawall on Friday morning as Hurricane Ike was still over 100 miles from Galveston in the Gulf of Mexico:

Seawall on Friday

(picture by David J. Phillip/Associated Press)

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the storm surge from Ike was beginning to breach the seawall over 12 hours before the eye of Ike was scheduled to make landfall.

Weather analysts estimate the the highest point of the surge will occur around midnight on Friday as the Ike’s eye makes landfall just west of the seawall during high tide. By that time, the seawall will be little more than a concrete sandbar under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico that are inundating Galveston.

A developing disaster

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ike_iss The extreme storm surge of Hurricane Ike is causing a disaster in Galveston, Texas, which is about 50 miles southeast of Houston. The Coast Guard announced earlier today that the authorities believe that Galveston Island will be completely submerged for at least 12 hours.

The Galveston City Manager and Mayor were just interviewed on local television at 3 p.m. They estimated that between 25-40% of Galveston’s residents (10-20,000 people) did not heed the mandatory evacuation order and have remained on the now-almost completely flooded island. It is now too late to evacuate the island.

Ball High School and the San Luis high-rise resort facility on Seawall Blvd have been opened as relief centers for Galveston residents who stayed. However, widespread flooding on the island makes getting to the centers risky, to say the least.

It is currently estimated that over 1 million residents of the Houston metropolitan area near the coast evacuated over the past several days. Many of those residents will likely have neither a livable home nor power when they return.

This is looking very, very bad.

Not a good start

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Judge Kent 082908_3 The Chronicle’s Mary Flood reports that visiting U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Pensacola, Florida is not off to an auspicious start in handling the criminal prosecution of U.S. District Judge Sam Kent:

The Florida judge who will oversee the criminal trial of U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent issued a gag order in the case to prevent public discussion by parties or court personnel that could interfere with the trial.

Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson of Pensacola late Friday issued the order that also allows him to hold arguments and hearings in chambers and outside of the presence of the public and forbids courthouse personnel from relating information from those hearings to the public.

Vinson said he found it necessary to gag the attorneys and courthouse personnel on his own, without a request from prosecutors or Kent, "to preserve a fair trial by an impartial jury by shielding jurors and potential jurors from prejudicial statements." He said he found a "substantial likelihood" that comments made outside court would "taint the jury pool and will undermine a fair trial to which both the accused and the public are entitled." [.  .  .]

The order specifically forbids "divulgence of information concerning arguments and hearings held in chambers or otherwise outside the presence of the public."

A copy of the order is here.

The Fifth Circuit Judicial Council’s confidential investigation and resulting sanction of Judge Kent has already been the subject of substantial criticism. Now, in his first action in the case, Judge Vinson enters a dubious gag order and raises the specter that he will conduct frequent non-public hearings. This is not the way to instill confidence that Judge Kent’s case will be handled in a manner similar to other criminal cases of prominent defendants. Like these.

Assessing priorities at TSU

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rudley 090208This Jeannie Kever/Chronicle article follows up on new Texas Southern University President John Rudley’s efforts to find a place for the institution within Houston’s changing marketplace for university education (prior posts on TSU are here).

Beyond academic programs that remain on probation and terrible financial problems, TSU’s core problem is that its former role as Houston’s open admissions university has been superseded by the University of Houston-Downtown, which is a far superior to TSU at this point in time. Rudley has brought over a team of administrators from the University of Houston to straighten out TSU’s thorny administrative and financial issues. But the even greater problem is that Houston may simply not need two open admissions universities, particularly in light of the growth of Houston Community College and various suburban community college systems over the past decade or so.

Although Rudley appears to be the type of administrator that TSU needs if it is going to survive, the following portion of this Ronnie Turner Chronicle blog interview with new TSU Athletic Director Charles McClelland reflects the entrenched mindset that Rudley will have to overcome if he is going to redefine TSU’s place in the local education marketplace:

RT: At what stage are you in negotiations with the Dynamo on a partnership for a football stadium?

CM: Well, we’re still in the same stage with the Dynamo. We have all of our talking points. We’ve brought in a consultant to help us close the deal with the Dynamo to ensure that we have all of our t’s crossed and i’s dotted. Once that’s done, we’ll have to get it to our board for approval. My understanding is that the Dynamo have moved forward on their end to help get the funding that’s needed, and we’re still extremely optimistic that the stadium will generate the type of notoriety, revenue and resources (needed) for us to take our football program to the next level. We’re extremely excited about the opportunity with the Dynamo.

As noted earlier here, unless the terms of TSU’s proposed deal for use of the soccer stadium are changed radically in TSU’s favor, no responsible TSU administrator or trustee would ever approve the deal. However, rather than pursuing such a dubious deal, shouldn’t TSU administrators and trustees really be asking themselves why a financially-strapped institution such as TSU is continuing to support notoriously unprofitable intercollegiate athletic programs at all?

Good luck, President Rudley. You’re going to need it.

Richard Justice Crosses the Line

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As regular readers of this blog know, I have often wondered why Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice is writing about sports. He is highly subjective in his views, does not back them up with objective facts and doesn’t reason well. Beyond that, he does just fine.

As a result of the foregoing, Justice is a controversial fellow among Houston sports fans. His blog is a rollicking place where mostly anonymous readers who comment on Justice’s blog posts regularly engage in competing insults with Justice. Not my cup of tea, but different strokes for different folks.

At any rate, after the Texans’ meaningless pre-season loss against Dallas a couple of weeks ago, Justice published this post in which he harshly criticized Texans offensive line coach Alex Gibbs — who is widely-regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL — for yelling at his players.

The post was odd, but nothing out of the ordinary for Justice, who had applauded the hiring of Gibbs this past January. Inasmuch as Justice noted that Gibbs has a policy of not talking to the media, many readers commenting on the post speculated that Justice’s criticism of Gibbs was simply sour grapes for Gibbs’ refusal to talk with Justice.

However, one particular reader who commented on Justice’s post was not interested in engaging in the usual name-calling that is common on Justice’s blog.

Stephanie Stradley, who previously blogged on the Texans for the Chronicle and who now blogs on the Texans over at AOL Sports Fanhouse, posted a comment to Justice’s post in which she challenged the factual basis of Justice’s assertion that Gibbs’ players were tuning him out because of his yelling. Stradley is a first-class blogger who analyzes the Texans much more objectively and effectively than Justice does.

In response to Stradley’s comment, Justice responded with shrill comment (since deleted) in which he reiterated his point about yelling and then insulted Stradley. Despite Justice’s insult, Stradley inquired in a subsequent comment about the basis of Justice’s contention that Gibbs’ players did not respond to him, to which Justice responded with another condescending comment. Tasteless, but again nothing out of the ordinary for the often childish nature of Justice’s blog.

But what Justice did next may very well have crossed the line.

Inasmuch as Justice’s criticism of Gibbs was so poorly-reasoned, readers continued to mock Justice in the comments to his blog post, prompting Justice to post a follow-up post to defend his position. But in so doing, Justice made the following comment (scroll down to comment at 9:49 AM) in response to a reader who suggested that he owed Stradley an apology for his earlier tasteless comment:

I don’t know what Stephanie’s real name is, but she creeps me out. She writes a little too often, wants to discuss and debate. She has her own blog, so why is she so interested in mine? Ask yourself that question. Maybe I’ve watched Fatal Attraction too many times. If something happens to one of my rabbits, she’s going to be in big trouble.–Richard

Incredibly, if that weren’t bad enough, Justice followed up that libelous comment with this one in responding to another reader’s comment (scroll down to comment at 10:13 PM):

Oh so you only use English when you feel like it? Be sure and put that on your resume. Listen, Cronkite, don’t get into an insult contest with me. You’ll end up in a fetal position whimpering and begging me to ease up. Find something you’re good at and dedicate yourself to that. I don’t know what that would be, but this ain’t it. Go hang out with that Glenn Close woman. She’d probably find you fascinating. Speaking of Stephanie Stradley, I woke up this morning and saw our rabbit cage was empty. ”Stephanie!” I screamed. Turns out, the little feller was sleeping beneath a chair.–Richard

In a patient and classy manner, Stradley recounts the entire bizarre episode here.

Beyond their utter tastelessness, both of Justice’s comments associating Stradley with a homicidal maniac appear to meet the requirements of defamation per se. As a result, Stradley has viable damage claims against both Justice personally and the Chronicle.

Ironically, Justice’s Monday blog post asserts that many Stros fans owe GM Ed Wade an apology. Absent the Chronicle and Justice heeding his advice and issuing an immediate public apology to Stradley, I hope she tees off on both of them.

The Chronicle has some very good reporters. But in these challenging times for newspapers, can the Chronicle survive the likes of Richard Justice?

The shoe drops on Judge Kent

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Judge Kent 082908_3 Here is the Chronicle article on the unusual federal aggravated sexual harassment abuse and contact indictment against U.S. District Judge Sam Kent. The previous posts on this matter are here. Here are the public statements of Judge Kent and his main accuser, and a related article (see also here) on Judge Kent.

Judge Kent will apparently defend himself by what amounts to confession and avoidance — that is, conceding that sexual advances were made, but that they were consensual in nature. In my view, that will be an extremely difficult defense for a defendant-judge to sustain in front of a jury.

This one has the potential to be very ugly indeed.

Update: Serious questions (see also here) are already being raised about the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council’s handling of the investigation and sanctioning of Judge Kent.